While it might have been only a couple days since Discord had arrived in Teyvat, it felt like centuries had passed by since he was last here. Not only had the lands changed dramatically and events that he remembered were now only seen as stories, but the ‘gods’ that he once knew had changed so much in the years since he left. While the Seven were still pretty much fresh in his memory, how they chose to live their lives since the Archon war was something that he still had trouble trying to process. Even when the so-called ‘Traveler’ and his floating companion returned and gathered the condensed elemental energy that the god of chaos had requested, the conversation that took place afterwards while they waited for the energy to attune with their creation was one that he had a bit of trouble trying to believe.
To Discord, the traveler wanting to meet the Seven to help find his sister was one thing. Though, when he began to hear about who they met and what happened in Liyue, that left him and Venti with a couple of questions. “So, hang on. You’re telling me that in the time that I had been away, Morax had decided to just call it quits?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” the traveler, Aether, told him, “When we talked with Zhongli, he believed that Liyue was over-reliant on him and that the only way the city could really grow was if he stepped away.”
“And everything that happened since the Rite of Descension was a test? To see if Liyue was ready to move on?” Venti now asked. Something that both the Traveler and Paimon nodded their heads to in response. “Geez, I knew that Morax was rather calculative, but this seems beyond him.”
“Well, he has been one to think more about others outside of himself… Unlike some other members of the Seven,” Discord crossed his arms, “Speaking of which, you said after the rite of parting, he talked to you about the next god you two want to go see?”
“Yeah, that’s right! The Raiden Shogun,” Paimon replied back. “Though, Zhongli told us that things in Inazuma aren’t so good right now.”
“Can you clarify on that?”
“He mentioned that Inazuma had closed its borders to the rest of Teyvat,” Aether added in response to the bard’s question, “That and the Vision Hunt Decree.”
“The what now?” both Venti and Discord responded almost simultaneously.
“Yeah, he told us that since last year, the Raiden Shogun had enacted a Vision Hunt Decree and started confiscating the visions of anyone who lived in Inazuma and putting them in some kind of statue,” Paimon picked up the conversation shortly afterwards, “Zhongli believes that Baal’s doing this to remove anything that could threaten her eternity, since word of his ‘death’ might have spread quickly to Inazuma.”
That had both the bard and his friend look back at one another, before they looked back at the duo. A look of doubt and concern was present on both of their faces as Venti began to speak, “That’s… rather concerning.”
“What do you mean?”
“Traveler, Paimon, let me ask you something… How much do you know about Visions?” the god of freedom asked as Venti folded his arms.
“Well, outside of what Zhongli said… there’s not a lot that Paimon remembers,” the floating emergency food admitted. Something that had Venti look back at his friend and ask him a question.
“Do you want to explain it or should I?”
“As if I want to spoil the surprise,” Discord chuckled, before he looked back at Aether, “In all seriousness though, there’s one thing I will say which might come up. The manifestation of one's ambition, recognized and given form by the gods.”
“That… doesn’t really explain anything,” the traveler remarked, “Can’t you just-?”
Before Aether could say anything else, a loud ‘DING!’ was heard as Discord’s ears perked up, just as he rushed over and had a chef’s hat appear over his head. “Hey, everything’s done! Let’s get back to it and explore the rest of that conversation later!!”
That just had Paimon scratch her head, before looking back at the Traveler. “The more that we help Venti’s friend, the more that Paimon gets confused. What does he even mean?”
“Ehe, you get used to it,” Venti snickered.
“And what’s THAT supposed to mean!? Hey, Tone deaf bard, Paimon asked you a question! Get back here!!”